Missing his Oklahoma roots and his family, Mullin decided to take his expertise and move back to Oklahoma, this time in the Tulsa area.
"I had started a business in KC with no experience. I'm the best drain man in the country now," he remembered thinking at the time. "I'm the best. I really believed that."
With that outlook, Mullin went to a Local Plumbing Company, an old Tulsa firm, on his first day in town. The Owner, hired the highly confident, even borderline cocky, Mullin as a subcontractor to clear drains. In about a months time the Owner was telling all of her customers: 'Jim's the best I've ever seen,' " he said.
He'd started over, soon business was good and growing, he married in 1974 to a woman he'd gone to high school with.
Gayle having gone to work with Jim and viewing her husband's work; she wanted their kids to be able to answer "Dad's a plumber" not "Dad's a sewer man" when asked what he did for a living. "She wanted me to have a plumbing company, " Mullin said.
Unlike Missouri, Oklahoma required sewer men to have a plumber's license. Mullin had been doing some plumbing anyway but hadn't bothered to obtain a license. His hand was forced when, to limit competition, one of his former plumbing clients reported him to the city and state.
Mullin went down and passed the test the first time he took it. The law required that plumbers put their company names on their trucks, a requirement that removed Mullin's anonymity and made other plumbers less likely to send him out on those jobs they didn't want to do, the dirty jobs, the clogged sewers. This loss forced him to seek his own clients.
"You turned me in and made me get my license, " he recounts telling the informer.
"I've done you a favor, " she replied.
"It will be the best thing that ever happened to you, getting your license.
Today, Jim & Gayle are still together, have a big family and have been richly blessed with 7 wonderful children, four boys and three girls and they can all say, "My Dad is a successful Plumber."
"I had started a business in KC with no experience. I'm the best drain man in the country now," he remembered thinking at the time. "I'm the best. I really believed that."
With that outlook, Mullin went to a Local Plumbing Company, an old Tulsa firm, on his first day in town. The Owner, hired the highly confident, even borderline cocky, Mullin as a subcontractor to clear drains. In about a months time the Owner was telling all of her customers: 'Jim's the best I've ever seen,' " he said.
He'd started over, soon business was good and growing, he married in 1974 to a woman he'd gone to high school with.
Gayle having gone to work with Jim and viewing her husband's work; she wanted their kids to be able to answer "Dad's a plumber" not "Dad's a sewer man" when asked what he did for a living. "She wanted me to have a plumbing company, " Mullin said.
Unlike Missouri, Oklahoma required sewer men to have a plumber's license. Mullin had been doing some plumbing anyway but hadn't bothered to obtain a license. His hand was forced when, to limit competition, one of his former plumbing clients reported him to the city and state.
Mullin went down and passed the test the first time he took it. The law required that plumbers put their company names on their trucks, a requirement that removed Mullin's anonymity and made other plumbers less likely to send him out on those jobs they didn't want to do, the dirty jobs, the clogged sewers. This loss forced him to seek his own clients.
"You turned me in and made me get my license, " he recounts telling the informer.
"I've done you a favor, " she replied.
"It will be the best thing that ever happened to you, getting your license.
Today, Jim & Gayle are still together, have a big family and have been richly blessed with 7 wonderful children, four boys and three girls and they can all say, "My Dad is a successful Plumber."
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment